"Walk with me," Ironwood ordered as he entered the complex; Kaze and Green fell in with him as he started heading for the medical wing, "Any new developments?"
"I have the report from the lab over at the SDC research complex," Kaze reported, "I was right, there's no dust impregnation in the alloy samples whatsoever. I can confidently say that vessel was not constructed on Remnant."
"That clarifies the political situation substantially," Ironwood said with a nod, "Good work."
"I've been testing the composition of chemical residue around the thrust nozzles," Green said, "Taking a dip in the lake makes the results somewhat unreliable, but the best estimate I have currently is that some of the thrusters are simple Oxygen/Hydrogen rockets, the maneuvering thrusters, I'm currently supposing."
"Material samples taken from the primary thrust ports also show an absurd amount of heat resistance," Kaze cut in, "Something substantially higher than the hull itself, suggesting they're rated for something even higher than atmospheric entry heating."
"What could need that kind of heat resistance?" Ironwood asked.
"I'm not sure yet," Kaze replied, shaking her head, "I'd have thought armoring against laser weapons, but this material only appears on some of the thruster assemblies. Some of the radiological equipment is giving funny readings though, so we've got a lead to follow, at least."
"Excellent," Ironwood said with a nod, pausing for a moment to straighten his uniform jacket as they arrived at Haruka's hospital room, "Hopefully we'll see progress on the language barrier soon; now please excuse me while I see our guest. Thank you for your time, Doctor Green, Doctor Kaze."
Opening the door to Haruka's room, Ironwood was greeted by a wash of music, and he found Haruka and Weiss Schnee huddled around their scrolls, discussing vocabulary. Weiss looked up sharply as soon as the door was opened; an effect of her Huntress training, Ironwood suspected.
"General Ironwood," Weiss said with respect, standing to offer him a courtesy, "It's good to see you."
Haruka looked up as Weiss spoke, and upon recognizing the General, offered him a broad smile.
"Hello General Ironwood," Haruka said, her accent surprisingly mild, "Good to hello."
"It's good to see you too Haruka, Miss Schnee," Ironwood said, crossing the room and pulling one of the other chairs up alongside Haruka's bed, turning his gaze towards Weiss, "What brings you here?"
"My father suggested Haruka here could use some company from someone closer to her age," Weiss replied, "He failed to mention that she apparently grew up in a secret kingdom utterly separated from the CCT somewhere."
"What makes you say that?" Ironwood asked clearly.
"Haruka," Weiss said, seating herself again as she turned to face the other girl, "Show Ironwood your scroll and a song?"
"Yes," Haruka said with a nod, shifting around in her bed a little so that she could hold her outsize scroll up at an angle Ironwood could see, starting a song before starting to pull up a variety of pictures.
Ironwood saw, even in just a half-dozen images, an unfamiliar city of a size and scale comparable to any of the capitals of the Four Kingdoms, vehicles both ground and air of unfamiliar designs, and in one, a port facility with ships larger than anything Ironwood had ever seen before. The port was similarly massive, both ships and port handling cargo on a scale that almost beggared belief.
"Based on what I know of you from your sister," Ironwood said with a sigh, "You understand the meaning of 'classified'?"
"Of course General," Weiss replied, managing to sound ever so slightly affronted, "Haruka would not be in a military hospital if there was not something sensitive about her situation."
"Good," Ironwood said, leaning back in his chair, and looking back and forth between the two girls for a moment, "A few days past, we recovered Haruka and her vehicle from lake Bykal; at first it was just suspected, but studies since have proven that both her and her vessel originate from a world other than Remnant."
Weiss' eyes widened; she hadn't suspected that. A kingdom that had lost contact with the rest of Remnant some time before the Great War, although highly improbable, had seemed far more likely than aliens.
"This is generally classified while the Council decides what to do," Ironwood continued, "And we work through the language barrier. As I'm sure you can imagine, there's a lot of potentially very useful technology wrapped up in the young lady's ship, but given we only have the one sample, and we don't understand how to use the control interfaces, things are very much dependent upon Haruka's decisions both in terms of possession under the law and practical ability to learn from it."
"I see," Weiss said slowly, face and tone neutral as she nodded, "My father suggested that Haruka will be moved to one of our research facilities soon; I assume her vessel will be transferred likewise?"
"It will," Ironwood said with a nod, "We just don't have the equipment for the level of study required here; this is a military base and testing facility, not an R&D complex."
"I'll ensure we have more appropriate quarters available for her once she is sufficiently recovered," Weiss replied, before turning her attention to Haruka as the emaciated girl laid a hand on her shoulder.
I still did not have enough vocabulary in the new language to be remotely close to following a conversation, but that was okay. While Weiss and James Ironwood talked, I paged through large galleries of images, selecting a few that depicted one person helping another at various tasks. Once I felt I had enough to get the meaning across, I laid a hand on Weiss' shoulder.
"Yes Haruka?" she said, turning towards me with a somewhat sad smile.
"Please, word?" I asked, before showing her the array of images I'd pulled together.
"... Help," She said after looking back and forth between a few, pointing her slender finger at one person, then the other, "He 'helps' her."
At this point, I was pretty sure we had nailed down some forms of pronouns, though I had no solid idea of all the variants and how conjugation worked.
"James Ironwood," I said, turning to the Officer with a smile, "Helps Haruka. Thank you."